SM Entertainment's sales of CDs doubled in 2021

K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment sold around 18 million CDs in 2021.[SM ENTERTAINMENT]

SM Entertainment, the K-pop powerhouse behind artists including NCT, Exo and aespa, announced Monday that it sold around 18 million CDs in 2021.

According to SM, CD sales “doubled” for the agency compared to 2020.

Last year, artists under the SM label released a total of 25 albums, which sold 15,043,000 copies. The agency also sold 2,578,000 copies of albums released before 2021.

The most sales were from SM’s 23-member boy band NCT and its subunits NCT 127, NCT Dream and WayV. SM announced last month that NCT and its subunits sold a total of 10,911,000 CDs.

NCT Dream’s first full-length album “Hot Sauce” and its repackaged version “Hello Future,” along with NCT 127’s third full-length album “Sticker” and its repackaged version “Favorite” were the highest-selling releases. Taking into account the original and repackaged verions combined, each group sold over 3 million copies.

Boy band Exo sold over a million CDs while its member Baekhyun also sold more than a million CDs as a soloist.

BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]